Sustainable Solutions for SCM

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CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSION FOR THE PROCESSES

OF DISTRIBUTION AND WAREHOUSING

6.1 Emissions, energy consumption and greenhouse gases

A typical transportation chain consists of the following steps: operation, transportation

and warehousing. In the operation step, products are produced from rawmaterial and packed

for the ongoing processes. Usually the products are stored in a warehouse before the next

transportation step. Before the products reach the final customer it could be transported

and stored at different times. A typical transportation chain is shown in Figure 6.1.

Figure 6.1 Transportation chain of a product

For example, the product is produced in Eastern Europe. After the first warehousing

process it is transported by train to a distribution centre in Central Europe. From

there a truck transports the product to the store of a retailer where the product is

sold to the customer. During this transportation chain different possibilities exist for

the transportation mode and the kind of warehousing. Transportation modes can be

differentiated into:

• Truck transport.

• Train transport.

• Sea transport.

• Air transport.

Costs, capacity and delivery time were in the past the main criteria for choosing

the transport mode. Transports by container ships have a large capacity, they operate

with low costs but have a high delivery time. Air transport with planes have vice versa

a low capacity, high costs per transported good but can manage one-day-transportation

worldwide.

Warehouses in a transportation chain have the task to harmonise the flow of

material in a supply chain. The customer request in terms of quantity and delivery time

cannot only be fulfilled by a flexible production. Stock is needed to keep a supply chain

running. Warehousing can mean holding stock for a couple of months, or it could

mean in a wider range just sorting incoming goods and re-loading them for ongoing

transportation. The last process happens in a cross-dock. The difference is the magnitude

of the stock and so of the required space of the warehouse.